Fabia vRS: extreme drive

Skoda’s vRS is supposed to be ‘made of meaner stuff’. But can it cope with one of Britain’s steepest and most extreme roads?

No wonder they call it the Lake
District. The main roads sway and coil around the lakes under the bald and
glowering blackness of trees curled tight against winter. Even the main
carriageways have been badly beaten by the elements, appearing in parts to have
been chewed. And then spat back out. This is already a stiff test, and we're
headed towards the Hardknott and Wrynose passes, contentiously the steepest
roads in the UK and certainly some of the most challenging, if you value both
sanity and sump integrity.